


100 days

by Accal1a



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Boys In Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, References to Illness, Sick Character, The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 02:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16337870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a
Summary: Sammy manages to get Jack out of the void, but it's not without some personal sacrifice.





	100 days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tobrokenstone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tobrokenstone/gifts).



> To my darling Becca, Happy Birthday!

Jack awoke slowly. It was dark, but it wasn't the dark that he was used to. This was a different sort of dark, it was more indigo. He even thought he might be hearing birds. Wind whistled through what he thought might be trees. He didn't dare hope, but he thought it might be true nevertheless.

He was back. 

~~~ 

“Oh God, Sammy! SAMMY!” Ben screamed down the phone, shouting impotently into the receiver, as if the volume of his voice would somehow carry across the miles between him and his best friend. He couldn’t think past the sound of static in his ears, the horrific way that Sammy’s voice had cut off mid-sentence. He could barely think about what that might mean, that he might have truly lost Sammy, and not just had him move back down to California. Couldn’t bear to think about the fact that the last thing he would have heard Sammy say was about their station, _their_ station. Ben could have lost both his oldest and his newest best friend in the blink of an eye. 

He vaguely heard Emily talking to him, explaining that what he heard might not have been what he thought had happened, but he knew. He just _knew_. Everybody always left. 

~~~ 

Sammy could feel himself drifting, as if he was in a dream. He thought he might have been talking to Ben, having a conversation about the void, about the station, about wanting to leave, about trying to find…Jack. He had been trying to find Jack. He tried to make his foggy brain pay attention to this vitally important piece of information, tried to work out what had happened over the last few hours, had it been hours? He didn’t know. He felt darkness rushing up to meet him and it soothed him. 

Perhaps Jack was calling him home. 

~~~ 

Finding Sammy on the road, his car crashed into a tree, the bonnet all bent and steam rising from the engine block was one of the worst images of Ben’s life. He found himself repeating “no” over and over again, as if that supplication falling from his lips would be enough to keep the life of his best friend tied to this world. 

By the time he got to the car, he could barely see he was crying so hard, and when the driver’s side door wouldn’t open, he sobbed in frustration. He could see blood dripping from Sammy’s temple through the glass. Surely the fact that blood was still flowing meant that Sammy was still alive? Or had it just not been enough time for gravity to have stopped its inexorable crawl down his best friend’s too pale face? 

Ben pulled his phone out of his pocket, dropping it on the floor due to his shaky fingers. He cursed at the offending item before stooping to pick it up. It took him several moments to make the screen light up, his clammy fingers slipping on the glass. 

“Troy! Troy you’ve got to…I need you to…we have to…” 

“I’m pulling up behind you now, Ben. It’ll be okay.” 

Ben hadn’t even realised that Troy was following him up the mountain, so adamant was he that he get to his best friend, his brother. He knew that if Troy was on his way that everything that could be done was being done. Troy always made everything better. He cradled the phone to his chest and sank to the floor next to the car, his legs finally giving out, as if his proximity would somehow help the situation. If Sammy was dying or dead, he didn’t want him to be alone. 

~~~ 

Lily’s phone trilled and she barked a curt “Yes?” into the receiver, frustrated that it had drawn her attention away from the show she was currently writing. 

She didn’t know why she was still writing the show. Her intern was gone, _missing_ apparently, and Pippa had gone home to her wife. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t do the show on her own, in fact there had been a time when Pippa had had a horrific flu and Mike wasn’t yet working with them and she’d written and produced the show herself. Pippa had gone ballistic when she’d found out, but Lily had had something to prove at the time…though what that was she couldn’t now remember. 

She had no idea why she was writing the damn thing now though, she didn’t really have the inclination to carry on with the subject matter, and Ben’s quiet insistence that there was somewhere to get Jack back _from_ wouldn’t stop going round in her mind. What if? 

“Lily Wright?” 

“Yes?” Lily replied in the same tone of voice, ready to send this telemarketer back to the pit of hell from whence they came. 

“Are you Jack Wright’s emergency contact?” 

Lily felt her blood run cold. God, not knowing he was truly dead was something that had kept her going some days. Feeling like he was out there somewhere, that he was finding himself, or suffering from amnesia and living in a quiet town in middle America, going by the name John and living a happy life was a level of perfection that occasionally got her through dark nights; when all she wanted to do was curl up and cry for her lost brother. 

_Don’t tell me this. I don’t want to know._

“We’ve found a man claiming to be your brother.” 

Lily felt like she needed to sit down, despite the fact she was already doing so. “What?” She whispered. 

“We’ve found a man claiming to be your brother. He’s at the Sheriff’s station with us over in Big Pine. Are you aware where that is?” 

“I’m on my way.” Lily replied, grabbing up her keys from the sideboard of the motel where she had carelessly chucked them the last time she had returned. “Don’t let him go anywhere.” 

“No, Ma’am.” The voice replied, before disconnecting the call. 

~~~ 

“What’s wrong with him? Why isn’t he waking up? How are they going to fix this?” Ben questioned, pacing up and down the waiting room. 

“Benny.” 

“What?” Ben said, rounding on Emily, “he can’t. It’ll be okay, right? He won’t…Emmy please tell me it’s going to be okay?” 

“They know what they’re doing, Ben. I promise. They’ll tell us as soon as they can.” 

“I don’t even know who his parents are. Do you think we should call someone? Should we be filing a report? Where the hell is Troy?” 

“Benny.” 

“LILY! We should call Lily! I must have her phone number in here somewhere!” Ben said, trying and failing to get his phone out of his jeans pocket. 

“Benny, please sit down.” 

“I can’t. I can’t I need to be moving, I need to be doing something. Why don’t I have her fucking number in my phone? It must be in my notebook at the station, I’ll go and get it and…” 

The station. That thought was enough to bring Ben to the nearest plastic chair and drop into it with a sharp exhale of breath. The station. That notebook, and everything else in that place was gone. Sammy was probably gone. 

He had nothing. 

~~~ 

“I don’t care, Jack. I don’t care if you don’t want to get checked out. I don’t care if you ‘feel fine’ you’ve been gone three fucking years. You’re going to have a doctor look you over…” Lily’s voice said, getting louder as she walked through the sliding doors of the emergency room. 

“Lily.” Jack said with a measured patience that could only have come from years of dealing with a twin who was mere minutes older than him but who never let him forget it. 

“THREE. FUCKING. YEARS. You’re going to give me this.” 

“Okay, okay.” Jack replied, raising his hands up in surrender. 

“Lily?” Ben asked, wondering whether his brain had snapped and he was hallucinating, or whether he had called the woman into being from sheer force of will. 

Lily turned to face the waiting room, surprised to hear her voice called. 

“Arnold? What are you doing here?” 

Ben had gone pale though, not seeming to hear her question. “Did you just say _Jack_?” He breathed. 

Lily laughed somewhat hysterically, then gestured at the man who bore a striking resemblance to her. Looking at the two of them there was no doubt that they were related. 

“Are you twins?” Ben asked, which was not the phrase he had intended to utter. Having said that, he wasn’t sure he really knew what that was. 

Both siblings replied at the same time, in the same tone, in the affirmative. If nothing else, that proved it. 

Ben stood so quickly he briefly saw stars and then barrelled across the waiting room and wrapped his arms around the man, squeezing him with surprising strength for a man of such short stature. 

Jack looked helplessly at his sister. 

“He does that.” 

~~~ 

Satisfied that her brother was not now going to wink out of existence again, she pushed him back out into the waiting room and under the questioning gaze of the excitable man, who was practically vibrating. 

“Did you give him an energy drink?” Lily asked Emily, and Emily smiled. 

“Didn’t need to. His mama bear instinct kicked in as soon as he knew Sammy was injured and he just…what?” Emily trailed off. 

Jack collapsed into a chair in exactly the same way as Ben had done earlier. She could see why Sammy had instantly taken a shine to him. That one mannerism on its own said a thousand words. 

“Sammy? My Sammy?” Jack asked, looking to Ben for confirmation. 

Ben nodded, seemingly at a loss for words. 

“Sammy’s injured?” Jack asked, his face ashen. 

“Yes,” Ben said, looking confusedly between him and Lily, “isn’t that why you’re here?” 

Before either of the Wright siblings could answer, a woman who barely looked older than twelve walked into the waiting room and all four of the other people turned to look at her. 

“Are any of you family?” 

Emily saw Ben rev up again, ready to break down a door if this woman told them she couldn’t tell them anything, or tried to stop him from seeing his best friend. 

“I am! I’m his fiancé.” Jack said, standing quickly. 

Ben deflated slightly, but seemed to accept this as an alternative. 

“Right this way, Sir.” 

~~~ 

**1.** Jack’s breath caught in his throat as he saw Sammy. 

It was partially the vision of him after so long, even though he’d felt the pull of his consciousness when he’d been yanked out of the darkness. He’d followed the light of his partner out into the real world again, something that he would be forever grateful for, although not if it came at the expense of his partner’s health. He would never forgive himself if he was back and it had cost Sammy his own freedom. 

The vague beeping of the machines, proof that Sammy was still breathing, still alive, was the only thing that allowed Jack to keep breathing himself. This was so much worse than when Sammy had had his appendix out. At least then he had been awake and talking, even if his skin had looked sallow. This immovability was distressing. 

“Sammy?” Jack said, stumbling towards the bed. “Sammy I’m here, I’m safe. I need you to wake up now.” 

~~~ 

**7.** “Do you remember that day when everything about the entire show went wrong? There was that…wait what was it? That stupid guest we were going to have on and they called at the last minute and said they weren’t going to appear? And you spent the entire segment that they should have been having the interview lambasting them instead?” Jack chuckled, gesturing wildly with his hands even though Sammy couldn’t see him. If Sammy was in there though, and he had to be, he would know precisely the mannerisms that he was employing. 

The beeping of the machines was the only reply he got to his reminiscence. 

“And then their agent called afterwards and tried to shout at you for besmirching their client’s name, but you just started in on them instead and you made them cry?” 

The beeping continued. 

“I’d give anything to hear Shotgun right now,” Jack whispered, “and, as you know, that’s saying something.” 

~~~ 

**11.** “Sammy, I really need you to wake up. _Please_ wake up. I know that I left you here on your own, I know I did, and I’m so sorry,” Jack said, tears starting to fall, “but please. Please don’t leave me. I love you. I love you so fucking much. I’m sorry I left you, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.” He trailed off. 

~~~

 **13.** “SAMMY MURIEL STEVENS I WILL FUCKING COME IN THERE AND PULL YOU OUT MYSELF IF YOU DON’T WAKE UP RIGHT THIS FUCKING SECOND! I WILL…DON’T YOU FUCKING LEAVE ME HERE, YOU BASTARD.” 

~~~ 

**17.** “I can’t do it Lily. I can’t. I can’t sit there again and just watch him. I can’t hear those machines beep and see his eyelids flutter and not hear him talk back to me. I can’t. I just can’t. Please don’t make me go back in there. Please. I can’t.” 

“It’s okay, little brother.” Lily said, and it was a sign of how stressed Jack was that he didn’t even bristle at the moniker. “You don’t have to go in there today. We can come back tomorrow, or later on, if you’re up to it. It’s okay.” 

Jack looked so relieved that her heart broke for him. She couldn’t imagine what this must be like, to have been so lost for so long and to come back and find his love not there with him. 

~~~ 

**22.** “What’s the point.” Jack said, sitting outside the room he had come to love and loathe in equal measure. 

“The point is that that man in there loves you and you are going to go in there and you are going to sit next to him and wait for him to wake up, you are going to talk to him about whichever inane shit comes into your head for as long as it takes.” 

“What if he never wakes up, Lil?” Jack said in a quiet voice. 

“He will.” His sister responded. She had no idea whether she herself believed it, but she knew that she needed Jack to believe it. It had been over three weeks and she could see him already losing hope, and she’d be damned if she would let that happen. 

~~~ 

**28.** “I brought in some nice flowers for you today. I know you always thought flowers were pointless because they die so quickly and you’d always roll your eyes at me when I brought them home, but I also know that when you thought I wasn’t looking it made you smile whenever you looked at them. So I’ve brought them in to liven up this room, you might not be able to see them, but maybe you’ll be able to smell them and it’ll remind you that you have something to come back to.” 

~~~ 

**33.** “Please. God Sammy, please. Please. Just _please_.” 

~~~ 

**35.** “You know what? FUCK YOU! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME LIKE THIS? I WAS IN THAT HORRIFIC PLACE FOR THREE FUCKING YEARS AND WHAT? I’M BACK FIVE FUCKING MINUTES AND YOU LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN? FUCK YOU, STEVENS. FUCK. YOU.” 

~~~ 

**36.** “I’m sorry about yesterday. I just. I don’t know what else to try.” 

~~~ 

**45.** “It’s been 45 days, Sammy. I don’t know whether you know that? I’m not sure how much time is passing for you. Hell, I don’t know if you can even hear me. The doctors said it might help to talk to you though, which is why I’ve been doing that. I’m not sure if it’s helping you or if it’s helping me. I guess it could be helping both of us.” 

~~~ 

**53.** “That Ben’s a character isn’t he? He’s been here nearly every day. I had to fight him a couple of times to get him to leave the room so I could sit with you. I mean not _actually_ fight him. Just remind him he wasn’t the only one who got to do that. Lily helped sometimes. I think he’s scared of her. Smart kid.” 

~~~ 

**60.** “I really like the life you’ve carved out for yourself here. It suits you somehow. It’s a quiet mountain town and it wouldn’t have been somewhere I picked for you, for us, but now I’m here it makes perfect sense. I could see you here. I could see _us_ here, raising a family. I promise if you wake up we can settle here, or somewhere like here, or somewhere nowhere like here. Wherever you want. I promise.” 

~~~ 

**62.** “It’s my birthday next week. Any chance you want to wake up as the best birthday present anyone could ever ask for?” 

~~~ 

**66.** “It’s nearly midnight. I wanted to give you until the very last second. It would have been just like you to pull out a grand romantic gesture right at the end.” 

~~~ 

**67.** “I guess it was a long shot. Happy Birthday to me.” 

~~~ 

**70.** “Lily mentioned going back to California today and I slammed her against a wall. Not my finest hour.” 

~~~ 

**82.** “Look, I get wanting to make an entrance, but don’t you think this has gone a bit too far? It’s not funny anymore.” 

~~~ 

**86.** “I guess I’d deserve it if you made me wait three years.” 

~~~ 

**87.** “Sammy. _Please_ don’t make me wait three years. I don’t think I can do it. God, how did you manage to do it? You’re a much stronger man than I will ever be. I’m not going to last three months at this rate.” 

~~~ 

**90.** “Well, I’m still here. Turns out I _could_ last three months. This has been the worst three months of my life. I feel like I can barely breathe. The first thing I think about when I wake up is you, and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep is you. It’s always been like that, but this time you’re not sleeping next to me. It’s like you were never there and that thought is somehow that much worse.” 

~~~ 

**92.** “I wanted out of that place, of course I did. But I never wanted out of that place at the expense of you. Never that. I would have stayed there forever to keep you safe.” 

~~~ 

**94.** “You’re like this because of me. This is all my fault. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so fucking sorry.” 

~~~ 

**96.** “Stevens, you’ve got to come back,” Lily whispered, close to her friend’s ear, “I swear I’ve never asked anything even close to this before, I barely even asked you to order the take out I liked, just ordered it anyway, but you’ve got to come back you’ve got to. He needs you.” 

She moved towards the door, before turning back and speaking in a much harsher tone of voice. “And if you die? I’ll kill you.” 

~~~ 

**97.** “Merv wants us to help create the plans for the new station, he’s going to listen to me about what tech we need. It’s going to be brilliant. Kind of need you back to co-host with me though, I’m not going into a new studio without you.” Ben said conversationally, his tone forcibly light. 

He’d gone through many different emotions over the last few months and he’d settled on optimistic, as if that would somehow convince the universe to bring his best friend back. 

~~~ 

**98.** “You said you were going to vote for me in the election, come November. Don’t make yourself a liar now.” Troy quipped, squeezing his friend’s foot on the way out of the room. 

~~~ 

**99.** “You have the biggest damn card in this room. I swear they had to chop down one of these amazing pines to make it. I’m also pretty sure everyone in town has signed it…and I’m not entirely sure if all of the names are real. Who’s Kingsie?” 

~~~ 

**100.** “Jack?” Sammy asked, confusion evident in his tone. 

“Sammy!” Jack replied, looking up from where his head was resting, pillowed on the too still appendage. He squeezed his fiancé’s hand tighter in surprise. He hadn’t realised until that moment that he hadn’t truly been expecting him to wake up. He’d been expecting him to waste away in this bed with him powerless to stop it. 

“Jack?” Sammy repeated, doing an almost comedic double take. “Am I dead?” 

“What? No.” 

“Or are you here? I mean _really_ here?” 

Jack laughed, tears spilling over his cheeks. “I’m here. We’re both here.” 

Sammy breathed out a “wow”, narrowly avoiding asking him if he was sure. Jack had never lied to him before though, so he was inclined to believe him now. 

Jack laughed again. “God I can’t believe you’re here.” 

“ _You_ can’t believe _I’m_ here?” Sammy said, reaching up his other hand to brush the tears from first one and then Jack’s other cheek. 

“I’m losing feeling in my hand. Any chance you can loosen your grip slightly?” Sammy asked, attempting to make light of a situation that he’d dreamt of over and over again; but which now it was happening he wasn’t sure how to cope with. 

“Are you kidding? It’s been 100 days, Sammy. I’m never letting you go again.” 

“I’d be okay with that.” Sammy replied with a matching watery smile, not caring that his hand was falling asleep one bit. He’d _lose_ the damn hand if it meant he never lost Jack again. “I’m more than okay with that.”


End file.
